NOVEMBER 11 — 1918 WWI ends; INVENTION/PATENTS: 1930 Edison/Szilard patents refrigerator, 1890 McCree patents roll up fire escape, 1851 Alvan Clarke invents telescope; 1978 Happy Birthday General Lee (Dukes of Hazzard car); 2016 The story of the BlueWhale of Catoosa
NOVEMBER 11
WWI ends on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Four empires dismantled: Ottoman, German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian.
On September 15th, the Chicago Tribune’s headlines read: Austria asks for Peace, Yanks Take 150 Sq. Miles in 27 Hours, and an indication of the quick fall of the Axis powers. America stayed neutral during the first few years of the Great War, with the exception of supplying arms and lending money to whichever side would pay the most. France would borrow heavily from America at high interest, and so would the United Kingdom, who had declared war on Germany in 1914 and dominated the high seas with the world’s largest naval fleet at that time.
However Germany led the world in industrialization, and the United States, who by the way had a huge German population, many of which had been sympathetic towards Germany since the American Revolution itself. But there would be no way Britain would allow the US to sell armistice to Germany, and made a much better offer. This led to Germans sinking American cargo ships without the slightest apology, and President Woodrow Wilson entered America into the war. At the second battle of Marne. The English and French wanted several million U.S. troops to fight trench warfare, but General John Pershing could only offer 200,000 doughboys that would still need to be trained.
Meanwhile Germany was looking to take Russia and move troops in the east to take France before American troops arrived, but were too late. General Pershing was able to train 4 million troops, and the United States Army’s Third Infantry Division fought so ferociously alongside the U.S. Marines they became the Rock of the Marne. Some of the greatest warriors that would eventually fight in World War II, including George Patton and George C. Marshall, actually served under Pershing, as well as Douglas MacArthur and even Wild Bill Donavon who would later head the group that would later lead the Strategic Services; then eventually the CIA.
The Germans, as they’ve done all throughout the war, up to this point were making the Americans pay dearly for every inch taken, but after Bulgaria and the Turks bailed, Austria-Hungary split up, and German troops were exhausted. Over There, the Expeditionary Forces practically ambushed the German army at Saint-Mihiel, and the results of that wound up on headlines such as the Chicago Tribune. Over There, around 1.2 million Americans fought Meuse-Argonne, until this day in 1918, at 11:00; Germany would prepare to face the Big Three: 1st Earl David Lloyd George of Britain, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France, and President Woodrow Wilson, the Phrasemaker.
The terms were harsh, beginning with the League of Nations, not you Germany, let everyone else pick Germany to the bone; with troops exiled from the Rhineland, the rich coalfields of the Saar given to France for 15 years, the French reacquisition of Alsace-Lorraine, eastern land rich in soil given to Poland, uniting with Austria out of the question, the German army limited to 100,000 troops, a maximum of six battleships, zero submarines, dismantling of the air force, and 132 billion reichsmarks, equivalent to around 26 billion dollars in those days, decapitated the country, and the German empire was done. Out of this heaping mess,
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis would rise and lead Germany to the sequel of the War to End All Wars. Was it worth America’s involvement? After all, over there, over 26,000 American troops die in an otherwise forgotten war.
1885 – Happy Birthday General
Paton! George Smith Patton Jr, though he couldn’t possibly be a junior since his immortal soul has been reincarnated throughout the centuries. Because greatness of this magnitude just cannot die. Nor can it be born. When God said Let there be light, Patton told God to say please. Patton made his own uniform. He had pistols with ivory handles.
In 1912 he represented the United States at the Stockholm Olympics kin the first modern pentathlon. He was the only contender and still won first place, second and third. By the time he was 26 at West Point he excelled in pistol shooting, sword fencing, and swimming horseback riding and cross country running. All at the same time. One time he stirred controversy by yelling at a soldier suffering from exhaustion in a hospital and slapping him across the face for being a coward. Legend has it that soldier never got tired again. He was a tank warfare guy and had a huge victory in the Allied Invasion of French North Africa in 1942.
In 1943 he beat British commander Montgomery in the Sicilian Race to Messina during WWII. Nobody was racing Patton except himself and he still won. Patton’s physical body died in Germany from wounds received in a car accident in late 1945. Yet. Just yet. The 1970 movie Patton won seven Academy Awards; and when George C. Scott who played the title role, tried to accept the awards, Patton’s ghost showed up on stage, intercepted the awards, and told Scott to shine his shoes. Patton, everyone. Like a boss!
1930 – Albert Einstein and his former student Leo Szilard parents the modern day refrigerator; although it was likely Szilard did most of the work while Einstein helped with the patent paperwork. 1890 – African American Daniel Mccree from Chicago invents the roll up fire escape. It had a cage that could be raised and lowered, and was designed to be part of a buildings existing fire prevention equipment and could be stored on location.
1851 – Alvan Clark from Massachusetts invents the telescope. He has two craters named after him; on e on the moon and one on Mars. Pay it a visit for extra credit!
1978 – Happy birthday General Lee. Now we all know Robert E Le as not born in 1978, thus I’m clearly talking about the 69 Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazard TV show that aired from 1978- 1985. On November 11, a stuntman rides off a dirt ramp and over a cop car; 16 feet high and 82 feet long. Like, most of Gen. Lee’s stunts, this one killed the car. But we saw it during the opening credits of the Dukes of Hazard week after week; thus being the only General Lee to air every episode. Its horn played the first few notes of Dixie, it had a confederate battle flag as an emblem on the top of the roof, and the doors were wielded shut so you could only get in through the window. I don’t normally wish automobiles a happy birthday, but this is worth exception.
2003 — At the emotional funeral for Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield, Bill Medley, the remaining half of the famous blue-eyed-soul duo, sings the gospel standard “Precious Lord.”2004 –M’hammed Soumayah, bodyguard for Liza Minelli, sues ths singer for $100 million for allegedly forcing him to have sex with her or be fired.
2016 – The Blue Whale of Catoosa begins selling Snapchat Spectacles.
Ah, what a great day in American History. Elon Musk was busy working on Hyperloop One, President Elect Trump met with President Obama and there were protests in major cities everywhere. It’s also my little brother’s birthday. Brother-in-law, whatever, close enough.
This is just one of those things you see on Route 66 that makes you do a double take and say, did I just see a two story tall fish off the side of the highway? Yes you did, Captain Ahab! And this large smiling whale can swallow men and women whole.
Back in the 1970s, just east of Catoosa Oklahoma, Zelta Davis was a big fan of whales. Her anniversary with her hubby Hugh Davis was coming up, and he surprised Zelta with one whale of a surprise, made out of pipe and concrete on top of a large natural pond, a K2C legend originally called Nature’s Acres Animal Reptile Kingdom, or ARK, now that Time Mag called one of the top 50 places in America you gotta see. Zelt’a wedding anniversary present, named appropriately named Blue, was getting nationwide attention almost right away, as visitors flocked from everywhere to see Blue Whale. Hugh decorated it with picnic tables, a diving board way up off the tail, a slide that goes into the pond, and entertainment provided by one heck of a silversmith and celebrity painter, Zelta’s brother Chief Wolf-Robe, a full-blooded Acoma Indian. But in 1988 the business went belly-up (oh no I didn’t just say that), and two years later Hugh passed away, along with Zelta 11 years later. Blue began to disintegrate; Fins of the Whale stopped coming by as weeds and grass overtook Blue, along with Vandals.
Hugh and Zelta’s son Blaine gathered up some volunteers in 1995 and started cleaning up Blue. It’s not the swimming hole it used to be, there’s just too much liability, though there’s no record I can see of anyone getting hurt back in the 70s by using it as such. Blue is still smiling, is still worth pulling over as you’re driving down the Mother Road, and now, and began in 2016 started giving people another reason to pull over and say hi, since Blue stared selling Snapchat Spectacles at his little gift shop, and the long lines were back in Catoosa.